Justice is Only Skin Deep

It’s a common criticism that men are vain and superficial. Film, music, and television all perpetuate the illustration of the shallow bachelor who refuses to associate himself with a bachelorette for anything other than her physical appearance. Men are painted as these one-dimensional cretins of the social world whose atavistic urges prevent them from appreciating a woman for anything other than her looks. This kind of thing is said to happen everywhere from the schoolyard to the board room - the male population apparently prefers thinner women almost exclusively.

This has a lot of men crying ‘foul’ against their feminine counterparts. They claim that these caricatures of slobbering buffoons neglect to acknowledge the intellectuals, the poets, the philosophers – the gentlemen. They try to distance themselves from the stereotypical alpha-males around them, and claim to be a part of a vast fraternity of guys who champion chivalry instead of chauvinism. These nice-guys-finish-last types may even be believable…if studies about them didn’t always point in the opposite direction.

Not only is this just a preference, but there seems to be a deeply-ingrained tendency in the male psyche that naturally discredits heavier women. A recent study by Yale psychologists surveyed the propensity of both male and female jurors to evaluate someone’s innocence based on his or her appearance. The people conducting the study described a false case to the participants: check fraud. The participants were then presented with one of four images: a large man, a thin man, a large woman, and a thin woman. The participants would proceed to rate how guilty the defendant was – a judgment strictly based on the defendant’s physical appearance – using a five-point Likert scale.

Interestingly, the women who participated in the study showed no discernible bias in evaluating the defendants. Researchers found no direct connection between the defendant’s appearance and the degree to which the female participants deemed them guilty.

On the other hand, there was an abundance of evidence suggesting that the weight of the female defendants directly influenced the male participants’ decisions. Researchers observed an apparent proclivity for the men to deem the image of the larger female defendant as ‘guiltier’ than either of the men or the thin woman. Not to mention, slimmer participants would consistently label the obese female defendants as ‘repeat offenders’ and having ‘awareness’ of their crimes through the rating system. Needless to say, this micro-population demonstrated the largest selection bias of any group represented in the sample.

This could have serious implications for the legal process that is enacted in every courtroom of jurors. No doubt, personal bias always has some bearing on a juror’s decision, but this study could suggest that there is a serious corporate problem with how the male community delivers justice. A sample of 471 is, of course, not exhaustive, but the results are still striking. There could be other societal influences on the study. Maybe the sample was in a community where there is a very consistent perception of criminal personalities – possibly the likeness of the large female defendant just happened to fit the description of a large population of criminals in these men’s communities. 

Nevertheless, the study is still remarkable. If it is, in fact, consistent with the tendencies within the larger population of males, it reveals some pretty uncomfortable information about male psychology that confirms volumes of social criticisms.

I guess guys just can’t catch a break…

The article can be viewed here